A financial adviser told the Haddonfield Board of Education this week it could save nearly $300,000 over the next 13 years by refinancing debt.

The board formally heard a proposal to re-finance its 2005 bond debt Thursday from Robbi Acampora of Capital Financial Advisors, Inc. It did not take action on the proposal.

“If things go smoothly and if interest rates hold, we will be able to refinance by the end of January,” Acampora said. According to Acampora, the bond rates were already “in the low 4-percent range,” and the proposal will not cost the district anything unless the bonds are sold at a savings.

“Nobody gets paid unless the bonds are sold,” she said.

Acampora urged the board to authorize an application to its local finance board at the state Department of Community Affairs, which is the first step in introducing a local bond re-funding ordinance. Anyone interested in purchasing local municipal, including general-obligation school bonds, can purchase them in $5,000 increments from their local broker, she said.

In other financial news, the board acknowledged the fundraising efforts of Janice Hunt and Deanna Burney, who led the Lights, Camera, Action campaign. Together the pair raised $70,000 toward the renovation of the high school auditorium.

“The football committees told us we could never do it,” said Burney. “They’d been raffling a Mercedes off at the time and had to give the money back. We said, ‘Watch us.’”

Board President Steven Weinstein praised the persistence of the pair in their efforts to raise the money.

“They took on an ambitious goal, were very creative in the ways to raise the funds, stayed with it after their children graduated, and did a remarkable job,” he said.

The board also congratulated the high-school wrestling team booster club for its financial contributions to the district before surrendering the floor to Haddonfield Athletic Director Lefteris Banos, who catalogued the accomplishments of the high school sports teams in 2011.

Banos’ remarks demonstrated the breadth of excellence the district had achieved since the beginning of the school year. Six of seven high school teams won sectional championships. Other highlights included:

• The boys' cross-country team went 10-0, spurred to victory by a student who competed on a fractured leg at the state championship meet. The girls’ cross-country team went undefeated in the conference for the seventh year in a row, and won the sectional title.

• Haddonfield boys' soccer went 19-3-1, winning conference and sectional titles. The girls' team was undefeated at home, compiling a 24-2 record en route to a sectional title and their second coaches tournament championship appearance in the history of the school.

• The South Jersey Group 2 state champion girls' tennis team won 28 matches, losing for the first time all season only in tournament play. The team also won the Colonial Conference title, the Moorestown Cup, and its singles and first doubles teams were overall state champions, which Banos said is believed to be the first time that any school district has enjoyed such a distinction. Coach Jeff Holman was also named to the U.S. Tennis Association Hall of Fame.

• The field hockey team went 22-2, winning back-to-back South Jersey Group 2 state championships under the leadership of coach Lindsay Kocher.

• Haddonfield football came within a touchdown of winning sectional championships, and also secured bragging rights for a ninth consecutive year in its Thanksgiving Day win against cross-town rival Haddon Heights.

Haddonfield Education Association co-president Sharon Stokes took the opportunity to plead her case for the board to address ongoing water damage in the high school, saying that a steady roof leak in the auditorium is threatening musical instruments stored in the closet there. She added that the water flow also intrudes on the ramp connecting the "A" and "C" buildings, putting many students—including injured athletes from the sports programs the board had praised at length—at risk for falls.

Stokes was told that the 2011-12 capital projects “do not at this time” include formal plans to address these issues, but that it is believed the source of one leak is a damaged internal component on a roof HVAC unit.